He weasels his way out of it, but isn't out of the woods yet.

"...well?" Sena asked, now getting suspicious. "Yes or no?"

"It's... Actually more complicated than that," Kazuma stalled, thinking hard and fast. Then he remembered something he could use. "...I'm not sure if it would count to set the bell off if I straight up said no, but I did in fact have a rather amicable meeting with a Devil King General by the name of Beldia. He was the Dullahan that moved in near Axel Town for a bit... I'm not allied with him or anything like that, but we're not on hateful terms, at least not for two guys who are probably going to end up fighting each other to the death if we both live long enough."

"...and how exactly did you get on... Amicable terms with this Beldia?" Sena asked skeptically.

"Well... It first started when Megumin blew up his castle every day for a week, and I carried her back after each time..." Kazuma replied.

"...what?" Sena asked flatly.

"Megumin's... A bit of an Explosion enthusiast." Ding! Kazuma jumped at the bell, and sighed. "Okay, I was being diplomatic, she's a nut job who's obsessed with the spell. She wanted a target to practice on, and we settled on that castle, having heard it was abandoned. So she let one loose daily at it. A week of this eventually had Beldia showing up in town, pissed as hell. But he was reasonable about it, and only wanted to give the culprit a piece of his mind and tell them to knock it off, so I just apologized to him and assured him it would stop, and he dropped the matter. That's how I knew he was a fairly reasonable member of the Devil King's army, which is more or less how I got rid of him."

"Got rid of him?"

"Yeah, his presence was making it really hard to get reasonable work around town, and many desperate adventurers were getting in over their heads with the only jobs available at the time. Myself almost included several times. So I went with my party to his castle and asked him to leave. I managed to persuade him to do so after a conversation, long story short. So... Yeah, not an ally of the Devil King, or of Beldia, but if I just said no to that question, that interaction might have been enough to result in me incriminating myself..." Kazuma finished, mentally sighing in relief.

"I see," Sena replied, looking at Kazuma with a respect he hadn't anticipated. Apparently, she was impressed that he had the balls to waltz up to the Devil King general to negotiate with him. "No further questions."

"Does this mean I'm off?" Kazuma asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid not quite yet. Lord Alderp will have the final say in whether I try you or not, though it will be my recommendation that we don't go to trial."

'Damn, and I doubt he'll let it go,' Kazuma mentally grunted. '...maybe I can appease him?' He looked at Sena, and said, "Tell him that if it helps, I can... Urgh..." he quivered, clearly fighting with himself. "That I'll... Pay for the damages..." he forced out.

"...your nose is bleeding," Sena said flatly, and Kazuma groaned.

'...is this how Megumin felt when I made her learn Fireball? Now I REALLY feel bad about it, that physically hurt!' Kazuma thought. Ria of course was cackling and pointing at Kazuma as that little bit of karma got him.